ZONE - Carrion Kingdom

After the battle, Kijani wandered the ship in a bit of a daze, shaken by her first experience with combat, as brief and —for her personally, at least— uneventful as it had been. When the hyetzi started in on the surviving humans, she clamped her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to block out the screams —sick to her stomach; But, even then, her nose told her far more than she ever wanted to know.

Eventually, her pacing bought her past Drumbeat and Morgaine —she identified the pair instantly by their voices and scent—, and she unintentionally caught part of their conversation.

"... I was hoping they would be less... savage. The things I have seen make me wonder if either of these tribes even deserve our help. Perhaps we should have left it without our interference. I wanted to help Jyuta, but now, it seems that it was simply nature's process to have these two tribes battle each other. I don't want to sound harsh, but the spirits have their ways of ending things."

“T-they do… I just… I-I don’t think Jyuta deserves this. He can learn… If… we could just get him away, a-and maybe the big, nice hyetzu, too… t-then I’d be okay leaving the others to their fate. L-like you said… they deserve it.”

"But, do they really?" she interjected, approaching the pair. "Such things aren't for us to decide —that's the Gods' domain. And how do you determine such a thing?" she asked Morgaine, her disgust and anger at the whole messed-up situation resulting in an infusion of acid cynicism into her tone.

"What makes Jyuta any better than the others? In case you missed it, he's fully happy to go along with this twisted and insane scheme to wipe out an entire clan. And, if that alone doesn't qualify him as 'deserving to die' to you, then how do you judge the rest of his clan to be? They're just following the orders of their crazy matriarch —just like Jyuta—, we've never seen them do anything worse than that.

"Now, I suppose you could certainly make a non-hypocritical case for Torok's innocence —he's quite simple-minded, so it's very possible he doesn't understand what's going on; But, the point is, if we start making the determination that an entire people is unworthy of life, then how are we any better than them?" she finished, feeling a bit embarrassed by her outburst. But, she had believed everything she said —even if she'd ended up saying it rather more harshly than she normally would have.

It was just... all of this —especially what Drumbeat and Morgaine had said— went against everything she believed, everything she'd made herself into. There had to be some way to resolve this without entire clans getting wiped out. There just had to be....

The crew finished up their tasks and prepared the vessel for docking. The captain watched as the party talked among one another in a secretive manner. He did not like the way they looked at each other as they discussed whatever was on their tongues. If there was one thing that was not going to happen on this ship, it was a damned mutiny. But if these beasts wanted to take care of the sickly one in the doctor's room, there was no griped about it. Jyuta was not apart of Scaletongue.

“All hands, make ready for boarding.”

The vessel dropped anchor and ceased riding the waves. It hugged a massive rock face, black in colour, studded with void iron giving the structure the distinctive black appearance, as if it were flashed with dragon's fire. But there were no souls on top of this rock. No, they were below the vessel.

Jyuta limped his way out from below decks using his bow as a crutch. He gritted his teeth fighting the pain, his bloodshot eyes looked each member of the party eye to eye before he noticed the massive black rock before him. He sat down upon a set of stairs leading to the captain's wheel and sighed.

“I missed everything.”

The smell of the ocean intensified. Numerous octopians climbed on board the vessel from the sides of the ship bringing with them the darkness of the depths. Their skin was slick with salves used to insulate the moisture of the sea, their bodies a mess of humanoid and octopus limbs. Unlike the rest of the beastfolk races, the octopians were not uniform in general appearance. Their bodies were like a hodgepodge of parts and pieces, put together by a god blind with madness. And it seems madness is what the octopians practice.

Though they surrounded the party and the hyetzu sailors, it was clear who was the leader. Ossrik stood much taller than his brothers, and only a foot shorter than Torok who towered over all. His left eye looked to be sealed shut by flame scarring and he wore an eye patch to cover the wound. His body was armoured with numerous articles from the sea save from the 'leather' made from whale hide. He had the head of an octopus, tentacles draped over his mouth like a cruel beard, but had the body of a human.

“The girl,” he said. His words sounded distorted like a man trying to speak in water.

Torok hesitantly turned to the small child at his side, then to Jyuta who nodded for Torok to continue. The massive beast sadly knelt down and hugged the child tightly. She rubbed the monster's face and scratched behind his ears. Oh, he loved that. But now was not the time for play. Torok let go of the child and pushed her towards the octopians. She looked back to him, but after Torok motioned for her to press onwards, she reluctantly turned away from the hyetzu and stood beside Ossrik.

Ossrik motioned for his brothers to hand the large potion pots to Torok. The hyetzu placed them into a large sack and slung it over his back. It was a quick affair with few words spoken between the two parties.

Perception Check

It was Morgaine who noticed the keys were missing from Torok's waist. She looked up to the hyetzu who had a smug smile on his face. When their eyes met, Torok quickly changed his expression and turned away from the arachnid. The spider then looked to the little girl and noticed a certain key just poking out of the bear's stomach along side the vile of paralysis poison mentioned in the letter.

Kijani noticed the absence of the key's sound from Torok's waist. Aside from his deep breaths and specific scent, she always heard the sound of the key striking against the metal rings on his belt. Then, the sound of a metallic object striking against glass. But it was subdued, as if surrounded by something soft enough to muffle the sound.

What these two wanted to make of the situation was up to them.

Their business was concluded, the octopians disappeared with the child, and the Scaletongues turned the ship around and sailed back to the shore. The ride was uneventful. Jyuta was still holding on to dear life, but seemed better and could finally hold onto his food. Torok did not say a word to anyone since a certain little one was missing from his side. Though, he seemed awfully at peace with himself given the circumstances.

Once the vessel reached the shores the party dismounted and traveled through the forest.

Jyuta leads the party at a slow pace, using his bow as a crutch. But he is better.

Torok walks at the rear of the formation holding onto the poisons.

You have just dismounted the vessel. The trek back to Carrion would be a long one.

Before Drumbeat could offer a reply to Morgaine, the avian that had been hanging around showed up and interrupted.

"I'm mighty sorry for interrupting and all-" he said with a mortified wide-eyed look "-just glad to see you two made it out okay. Boy, I thought we had all the blood-thirsty folks on our side."

Cattell bit her lip. “I-I wish we didn’t…” She mumbled.

As she said that, Kijani materialized and began to give her rather emphatic two cents.

"But, do they really?" she interjected, approaching them. "Such things aren't for us to decide —that's the Gods' domain. And how do you determine such a thing?" she asked Morgaine, her disgust and anger at the whole messed-up situation resulting in an infusion of acid cynicism into her tone. The arachnian winced, and backed away from the blind girl.

"What makes Jyuta any better than the others? In case you missed it, he's fully happy to go along with this twisted and insane scheme to wipe out an entire clan. And, if that alone doesn't qualify him as 'deserving to die' to you, then how do you judge the rest of his clan to be? They're just following the orders of their crazy matriarch —just like Jyuta—, we've never seen them do anything worse than that.

"Now, I suppose you could certainly make a non-hypocritical case for Torok's innocence —he's quite simple-minded, so it's very possible he doesn't understand what's going on; But, the point is, if we start making the determination that an entire people is unworthy of life, then how are we any better than them?" she finished.

Morgaine chewed her lip as the thought over that, before sighing. “I… I-I don’t know.” She said, meek as usual. “Just… i-if they’re already wiping each other out… i-it seems like that’s the end the spirits are driving them towards.” She pointed out. “S-some things need to die so… o-other things can live.” She sighed.

“I-I just want to save who I can… a-and right now, that’s just Jyuta and Torok.”

-----

As a result, Morgaine simply stayed quiet and watched when the exchange was made. Frankly, considering the little girl getting exchanged was an elf, Cattell couldn’t have been happier with the trade. Who said the octopians were going to hurt her or anything, anyway? So she stood there, watched the exchange… and then noticed the smug look on Torok’s face. She frowned, slightly, but his expression quickly changed and he turned away.

Morgaine noticed that, as he turned away, the key that was usually on his belt wasn’t there anymore.

The arachnian’s face turned a few shades paler, but a few moments later the octopians left, taking the elven girl with them before she could warn them. She nervously approached the edge of the boat, looking down into the depths and half-expecting a blast of magic. Fortunately, Morgaine was disappointed in that regard as the ship slowly and uneventfully sailed back to land. From there, there was little to do but walk, which Cattell did in silence. At least I’m far away from her, she finally decided.

The avian meant to step forward and introduce himself, but Kijani, some agent from Minoans, broke in, disregarding his presence. He considered what she had today for a bit, then left. Ressad wasn't for trading little girls for weapons.

He rolled that thought around in his head a while.

When Ressad volunteered to fight for Jyuta's tribe, he imagined he'd be fighting for the lives of an under-dog tribe, not this.

Even still, perhaps the Octopians were not planning to harm the girl. And he and his group took her, where would she go? Cro Cabra?

It was not right. But the whole conflict was not right. Ressad could only hope that the thread of a deadly weapon would be enough to stop the violence.

-----

After the trade took place, Ressad waited around the deck a while. He had felt good about himself, it had been two days since he last smoked. He hadn't slept in a while, but he was just happy to be alive. Or at least to have a reason to exist. He saw Morgaine waiting around too and approached her.

"'Afternoon," he said "I don't think I ever got your name;-"he paused and looked around at Loka and the rest of the hyetzu "I won't be take it too personally if you didn't want to share it in this group."

As they continued their journey on foot back towards the Carrion Kingdom, Morgaine noticed the avian approach her. They hadn’t really talked at all, though Cattell had seen him around pretty much all the time. Well, not really. Frankly, it was only when she saw him coming out of the background now that she realized he’d kind of always been there. Just… distant. Right now, she vaguely wished he wasn’t going out of his way to chat...

"'Afternoon," he said, courteously, "I don't think I ever got your name;-"he paused and looked around at Loka and the rest of the hyetzu, "I won't be take it too personally if you didn't want to share it in this group."

She blinked, looking around the group. No’ydya was still close to Loka, getting pretty much all of his attention. They’d begun to bond in a way Morgaine couldn’t possibly ignore, even naive as she was, though… well, frankly, she hadn’t imagined the two bonding like that. They were practically like her parents. Except two different races. And one of them was a total psychopath. The arachnian girl had given them their space, as a result.

But telling everyone her name, especially with Loka seeming to soften up like that? That wasn’t really a problem. Besides, it wasn’t like they were all listening… or that half of them didn’t know already.

"Whatever" He thought. If walking back from a prisoner exchange had set the tone for the rest of this mess, having anyone to trust would be nice. Well, maybe except Loka. That guy was whacked out.

It was out of his character to ask someone their name before giving his. Strange avian customs still stuck with him all this time. Other folks probably wouldn't get the how it feels to have to eat bugs, fish, and herbs all the time, then turn around and be trailed by a more aggressive enemy. He had been around non-beastfolk enough to realize he was practically wearing a target.

“Uh, I’m Morgaine.” She said, as if Ressad had grown a third eye- or rather, more accurately, as if he appeared in a puff of smoke “Um… who’re you, though?”

Ressad tried not to look too alarmed. He had already introduced himself earlier, a while back, but clarity was never his strong suit. If he had any hope of making this whole thing not awkward, he should have never spoken. But when you don't know anybody, you really have nobody to lose.

"Oh sorry well- I should'a figured I can accidentally almost shoot somebody, I should probably introduce myself. I go by Ressad these days. I'm a poet, I swear, not a fighter. I've just been hunted a few times, so I don't talk much"

"But I love reading and writing books. You'd be surprised how few of us do," he was wordy, but careful not to say anything too risky, failing to mention who exactly had been stalking him. "I saw you carried a few,- what genre's your favorite?"